Leadership Lessons From NehemiahSample

Day 5: Attention to Detail

The story of rebuilding the wall is a model of project management. Over the next 52 days, Nehemiah and his recruits rebuild the wall. Pause on that one – a 2.5-mile wall gets rebuilt in 52 days by people with no experience building walls. 

Let’s add some historical context. In Nehemiah’s time, walls were strategic, keeping people you feared out and communities you cared about safe inside. With no airplanes, helicopters or drones, the only way to attack over a wall was to use a ladder, climb over it, or try to propel or shoot something over it. Rebuilding the wall would have been a first step to providing the security needed for Jerusalem to be a first tier city-state.

The first step of realizing a large project is to break the work down into concrete next steps. It's critical that leaders reduce their big visions into small, digestible components for those who follow them. Nehemiah had a vision for the entire 2.5-mile wall to be rebuilt and how that would lead to a more robust city but his individual recruits couldn’t act on that whole thing. Instead, Nehemiah gave them concrete and specific jobs, often assigning individuals to work on specific areas of the wall near where they lived.

In my day job, I meet many entrepreneurs who tell me that they’re not "detail people" as we’re discussing their business and I’m trying to understand specifically what they've accomplished to date. As organizations scale, it’s clearly important to surround yourself with team members who complement your skills. That said, in the beginning, there is no excuse for a leader who can't reduce their vision to actionable details for their followers. 

As you seek to fulfill the vision God has placed on your heart, don't overlook the importance of knowing and paying attention to all the details critical to its success.